2000-10-17 - 19:20 MDT

October 17, 2000

Multitudes

I ranted and raved,

cussed and swore,

red in the face, the flag I waved,

whirled my arms and spit on the floor.

Then I proceded to dump my rabid mouthing accidently.

As I went along the realization the thing I was raving about has been with us for ages came to my attention.

Over population. More people than there is room for. In the sixties when I was in Japan they told me that real estate in the cities was sold by the Tatami and the Tsubo -- a Tatami is the size of a sleeping mat, a Tsubo is the size of two mats. While there I saw some "new" houses being built and the small size would have cramped us round eyed Anglos terribly. King size doll houses on a handkerchief size plot.

What caused me to get spinning on my head is that here in our state there will be a growth limiting amendment to vote on soon.

The problem I have thought about for years is here in our laps, now.

Either way it goes people, little people whose money can't talk loud enough will suffer.

If growth is limited in the city, the competition for the available space will cause the rents to go up and the price of small houses already beyond the reach of Mr. Average Joe will become just a wild hallucination. You know, the story that, well, people will move out and businesses will leave and rents and home prices will come down -- yeah . . . . . right ! I guess that is the reason why some real estate people and owners are trying to sell us the smoke to go and vote for the limitation - ultimate profit. I see by the paper this morning that an unbelievable amount of money is being anted up to force it through. A lot of the public is being sucked into blindly believing that growth limitation is the magic lollipop. The wording of all of these things we vote on is so convoluted, obfuscated, and plain downright intentionally deceiving that the only ones who understand it are the ones who wrote it. Of course they will not clarify the true meaning, hell they want this thing to be blindly passed.

So they limit the city growth - - - but out beyond the boundaries of the city, the developers will go into the middle of big farms with bulldozers and voila ! Instant residences and strip malls. We have met the enemy and he are us.

ON THE OTHER HAND

If this thing is not passed, we will have more of what we now see -- an infestation of developments, houses, blacktop spreading in all directions, the inability of bureaucracy, planners and engineers to keep up with the expansion now taking place let alone the demands that will be placed on road and highway planning and construction, fire and police departments, sanitation yadda, yadda, yadda.

Then the biggest problem. Here in Colorado where "Range Wars" over water rights have raged since the first two dry land farmers or more likely ranchers fought over who owned the creek, and a little of the Colorado River is allowed to stay in state and the rest flows downstream to the eventual big user California -- now we are piping water to Denver from the Western Slope and trying to find other sources to serve the population now existing here, there is only so much watershed in our state and we are bringing the most of it to Denver -------- where the hell is the water coming from for the Newbies ?

There is a certain amount of sense to both sides, but Draconian measures I think will hurt more than help.

Do we want to live as people in Japan do ? So terribly, terribly crowded ? Do we want to drive people and businesses out of our state ? Or maybe send the excess population to the WIPP in New Mexico for burning and burial a la the Nazi method ? What is the point in that sort of philosophy ?

We can't back up a century or two and quit having so many children or go the Chinese route of forcing abortions on any woman becoming pregnant with more than the family allotment of two (or is what I read just plain wrong ?)

Seems to me that all the big thinkers - movers and shakers - should go for it and realistically figure out a peaceable non-disastrous course to solve this problem, and disregarding the almighty dollar come to a common sense solution without torturing the little guy and essentially making him a starving, homeless bum ?

It is funny to me that the citizens of Blackhawk and Central City who were so eager to vote gambling in as a means of bringing in cash, suddenly realized that they couldn't afford to live there anymore. So will this thing on the ballot cause the same thing to happen to us if it passes ?

So how are we to deal with the Multitudes ?

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